Independence Night, 3-day weekend, Baleadas, and all around fun time

Alright folks, my lack of updates is a JOKE, lo siento. Things have been busy per usual and I have been lazy/trying to use my time more wisely by doing things for school. But I'm back and I'm ready to give you the goods. So last Friday (a week ago) was our school's Independence Night celebration, to celebrate Honduras's Independence day. The school put on a grand production with our band performing, dances from each grade, a skit, singing, dancing, and just good ol' fun. Because of the night's production we had a half day where we came in at 2 pm and had classes from 2pm to 6pm. It was a real trippy feeling having school in the afternoon like that, it definitely threw me for a loop, but we made it through. We basically got nothing done, but all is well. The night's production was a lot of fun, our kids are so precious, it warms my heart.  My kids performed a super cute dance with the 1st and 3rd graders. Here's a picture of them practicing earlier in the week:

 Ms. Anita, our office secretary is the bomb(dot)com and created/taught all the dances. They were super cute. The kids were HILARIOUS. They're all super uncoordinated and all over the place, but just so stinking cute. I caught them on video for a short bit during the performance. The song was super fun, not going to lie, I definitely wanted to be in the dance, I thought it was the jam.

The night also included a performance by our lovely band. We've been listening to them practice since we first got here, so it was fun to see them in action for reals.

 They also had a Danza Folklorica performance, which is traditional Honduran dancing (I think), which 2 of my kids are a part of and it was the most precious thing eveerrr.

 Too cute. Sorry for the crappy pictures but it's all I've got. Overall it was a super fun night and I'm so proud of all of our alumnos (students).


After that night 3 of us teachers headed to West End to spend our weekend vacationing (we had a 3 day weekend because of the Independence Day). There was a big Fishing tournament going on down there so there was lots going on. We got to spend the weekend fully enjoying ourselves. We had our first snorkeling experience and well it definitely convinced us that we NEED to learn to SCUBA! It's ridiculous how close the reef is, how clear the water is, and how BEAUTIFUL everything is. We even got to see a sea turtle. It ruled, we were obsesssssed. ALSO, one day while we were hanging out at the beach we saw this crazy little sail boat out in the water swaying back and forth and realized it had a crazy rope swing on it. We swam out to it (it was really way to far but we somehow managed) and we got to swing off the boat, although it took us all forever to swing off the one of the baby steps. But it was such a cool and elaborate piece of work. Hopefully, it will still be there the next time we're out there and we can make our way up some more steps. There were also tons of vendors out selling food and live music and just fun times all around. GREAT weekend for sure.


In other news the other day 3 of us teachers went over to our Taxi driver's house. I know that sounds kind of strange but Nino, our taxi driver, is seriously the coolest. We've grown quite a close bond with him and he just is the best. He's been inviting us over for a while to make baleadas, the typical honduran dish, which is basically a delicious quesadilla with refried beans, sounds simple, but oh man SO GOOD, I can eat them everyday. Some of the girls had already gone to his house to make some a couple weeks ago so I was stoked to go this time. He dropped us at his house, which is up the road from our place about a mile, near the soccer field where we've gone and played with some of the kids. He left us with his wife and daughter to get to work. We hand-made the dough, for the tortillas, which is actually a ton of work. His wife is a pro and made it look way too easy, while us gringo teachers struggled real good. We all dropped a ball of dough at some point with our clumsy hands. They had cooked some beans and stuck some in a blender with some chiles and onion, then put it back on the stove in a pot to make home-made refried beans. We cooked up our tortillas, layered on the refried beans, sprinkled on some shredded queso duro (mmm so good), added some avocado and we had ourselves some delicioso baleadas. It was awesome. We had a tons of fun. He has a super sweet family and they were so nice and welcoming. It's just another example of how lovely this island is. Seriously I'm in love with this place. Where else in the world can I go to my taxi driver's house and make baleadas? Feel so blessed.


Basically life on the island rules. There's always an adventure to be had. This weekend we're supposed to go out snorkeling and ziplining also known as canopy tours here. Our neighbor works for one of the canopy tour companies here and offered to take us out FO FREEE. Seriously, the blessings keep pouring out.

Sorry for the ridiculously long blog post, will try to be better about updating. LOVE to you all.